Is it legal to sell my used copy of Vista?

[MikeWarner]

When Vista came out I bought Vista Ultimate to upgrade from XP Pro. I have now bought a new laptop which has Vista pre-installed. I am able to sell my old copy of Vista Ultimate second hand? Obviously, I don't have this version installed on a machine. It is complete with packaging and licence number, but I wanted to check it was legal to sell it on.

Thanks.

[kNeo_gHau]

If it's unused then it should be fine

[MikeWarner]

I did use it, but it is currently unused. i.e. I installed it, registered it and since removed it fully and sold the laptop it was on with XP Pro.

[KillBill]

The deal with individual MS licences is that so long as its not part of some enterprise agreement or volume program, then you own the licence, you're entitled to do what you like with it, including sell / give it to a 3rd party, so long as you understand you relinquish your right to run the software, and uninstall any existing copies of it blah blah blah.

Even if it was illegal, I wouldn't be too worried about having your doors booted in at 5am if you sold it, they're more interested in people selling 20k copies a month on dodgy market stalls than the odd individual.

That said, good luck finding someone who actually wants to buy a copy of Vista

[Nobbie]

But if it's an OEM, upgrade copy it's not transferable, but if unopened, as above, and genuine, then it should be fine.

[Nobbie]

Once installed, did you activate it?

[KillBill]

Mmmmm there's a point, he would have had to activate it to continue using it past the grace period (30 days I think).

So if its been activated it may require a call to MS to verify it if its being used on a machine with vastly different hardware.

Oh the joys.

[Nobbie]

Well, you should get 3-5 activations per copy, for hardware changes, etc, although the first machine you instal it on, and then try and activate on will need a call to microsoft, saying you've changed hardware.

[MikeWarner]

It is the full version and not an OEM, it has the big goofy plastic box with the 32bit and 64bit versions on 2 DVDs. I'm not worried about MS coming to get me or anything, I just want to be sure the buyer doesn't have any problems activating it.

[KillBill]

Sounds like it should be grand then

[MikeWarner]

Thanks for the info so far. I've just found some info on the Microsoft site - looks like you are allowed to sell it once.

From this doc (Vista Licence Agreement):
http://download.microsoft.com/docume...9cf5105718.pdf

16. TRANSFER TO A THIRD PARTY.
a. Software Other Than Windows Anytime Upgrade. The first user of the software may make a one time transfer of the software, and this agreement, directly to a third party. The first user must uninstall the software before transferring it separately from the device. The first user may not retain any copies.

[marblegary]

If its the full legal retail version then yes you can sell it (if its oem you have to sell it with a piece of hardware from the original machine it was installed on)

They will probably be ok activating it via the internet, should do itself, but if not it pops up with a freephone number on screen with a big long code, you just ring the number, tell them you've had to reinstall because our hard drive died (they dont seem too bothered on the other end really!) then you give them the code on screen then they give you a code back, type that in and you're done.

That's what i had to do when i bought a second hand xp pro, i assume its the same with vista, if not it won't be far off!

[Rik]

How much you want for it Mike?

[MikeWarner]

Turns out it is the upgrade version. They seem to go for around £80 on ebay. It is £225 new.

[OHC]

crack it put a key-gen with it and sell loads of them jj not worth the fine